Chapter 7 - Perceived safety in Swedish ruralareas

• People fear crime less in rural areas than they do in urban areas. It is submittedthat this fact represents a partial picture of perceived safety, because people canfear greatly even if they perceive a slim likelihood of crime actually occurring.In this chapter, instead of reducing the issue of perceived safety to risk of victimization,the discussion is placed in a broader context with particular attentionto rural areas in Sweden. As previously stated, “perceived safety” is a generalconcept used in this book to characterize both fear of crime and other overallanxieties captured by different indicators of fear and anxiety. The chapter looksbeyond actual statistics of perceived safety between rural and urban areas inorder to shed light on the nature of fear among people living in rural areas. Thechapter includes critical analysis of two examples of expression of fear in relationto the process of othering in the Swedish country side: Sami youth (the oldother), followed by the berry pickers (the new other). In order to illustrate inmore detail patterns of perceived safety, two non-metropolitan municipalities:Jönköping and Söderköping are discussed in this chapter. The chapter closeswith suggestions for possible further research on fear of crime in rural contexts.

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